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Lecture 5: Lecture 5: How about some Latino How about some Latino

stereotypes?stereotypes?

Professor Daniel Bernardi /

Professor Michelle Martinez

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In the last lecture…In the last lecture…

• Semiotics of Stereotypes• Falling Down (1993)• Reception of Stereotypes

Ben Shahn, Conversations, 1958

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In this lecture…In this lecture…

• Stereotypes & Story

• Six Latino Stereotypes

• Resistance is Possible– Progressive Images– Latinos Playing Latinos

Dolores Del Río

You can pause the lecture at any point, click on one of the hyperlinks (text that is underlined) to visit a site or view a clip, and then return to the same point in the lecture when you’re ready.

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Stereotypes & StoryStereotypes & Story

Lecture 5: Part 1

Shot from Flying Down to Rio (1933)

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Remember Semiotic ProcessRemember Semiotic Process

From Noodle Tools

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Remember Signs of StereotypingRemember Signs of Stereotyping

• Image/Sign = El Bandido

• Traits/Signifiers = Color, Sombrero, Smirk

• Signified = Connotative Meanings (race, nation, morality, etc.)

“A mediated stereotype, then, operates by gathering a specific set of negative traits (signifiers) and assembling them into a

particular image (sign).” – Charles Ramírez Berg

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Remember Triangled ViewerRemember Triangled Viewer

Hegemony

Archetype Hero

+

+Viewer

- Stereotype

• Audience Invited Into Triangle

• Asked to Take a Side– Hero (in-group)– Other Character (out-group or just minor)

• Easiest Way into Movie is Assuming Positive Point (hence, identification)

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Start with CharactersStart with Characters

• Entrenched Storytelling Conventions

• Goal-Oriented Protagonist– White, Handsome, Straight, Protestant

• Stereotypes and Minor Characters– Villains, Sidekicks, Temptresses– Provide Hero w/ Opportunities to Display

Moral, Physical and Intellectual Preeminence

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Consider Cinematic Elements Consider Cinematic Elements Contributing to Stereotypical SignsContributing to Stereotypical Signs

• Mise-en-Scène

• Cinematography

• Editing

• Sound

• Costuming & Make-up

• PerformanceShot from Falling Down (1993)

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Move to Narrative StructureMove to Narrative Structure

• Beginning = Equilibrium

• Middle = Disruption

• End = Restoration of Status Quo

“The status quo posited in the movies as the best of all worlds is one that is safe, peaceful, and

prosperous. But it is also one that is white, upper-middle-class, Protestant, English-speaking, one that

conforms to Anglo norms of beauty, health, intelligence, and so forth.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

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Stereotype Commutation TestStereotype Commutation TestTry to substitute another ethnicity into the role

being analyzed. If the part can be played just as well as another ethnic, national, or, for that

matter, gender group, then it is probably not a stereotype, but rather a stock comic or dramatic

type (the jealous husband, the flirtatious wife, the deceptive best friend, and so forth). If no other ethnicity can be readily substituted for the role,

then chances are that it relies on specific stereotypical traits of a particular cultural group to

make its comedic or dramatic impact.” – Charles Ramírez Berg.

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Six Latino StereotypesSix Latino Stereotypes

Lecture 5: Part 2

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The Six TypesThe Six Types

• El Bandido

• Harlot

• Male Buffoon

• Female Clown

• Latin Lover

• Dark LadyJacqueline Obradors in Six Days, Seven Nights (1998)

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Historical PointHistorical Point“Sometimes the stereotypes were combined, sometimes they were altered superficially, but

their core defining – and demeaning – characteristics have remained consistent for

more than a century and are still evident today.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Douglas Fairbanks Antonio Bandaras

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El BandidoEl Bandido

• Dirty, Unkempt, Oily Hair

• Scars and Scowls

• Vicious, Cruel, Treacherous

• Irrational, Emotional, Violent

• Inability to Speak English

Frank Silvera in Hombre (1967)

Al Pacino in Scarface (1983)

Click Here to See Scene from Scarface (1993)

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The HarlotThe Harlot

• Corresponds to El Bandido– Secondary Character

• Hot-tempered, Slave to Passion

• Inherent Nymphomania

– Sex Machine

– Innately Lusts for White Men

Linda Darnell in My Darling Clementine

(1946)

Jacqueline Obradors in Six Days, Seven Nights

(1998)

Click Here to See Scene from Six Days, Seven Nights (1998)

Click Here to See Scene from My Darling Clementine (1946)

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The Male BuffoonThe Male Buffoon

• Second-Banana Comic Relief

• Simpleminded

• Cannot Master English – Heavy Accent– Mispronounces Words

• Butt of Joke

Leo Carrillo in The Cisco Kid (1950)

Alfonso Arau in ¡Three Amigos! (1986)

Click Here to See Scene from ¡Three Amigos! (1986)

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The Female ClownThe Female Clown

• Counterpart to Male Buffoon

• Neutralizes Latina Sexuality– Allows Hero to Reject for White

Woman / Maintain WASP Status Quo or Equilibrium

• Sullied and Ridiculed

Lupe Vélez in Honolulu Lu (1941)

Jacqueline Obradors in Six Days, Seven Nights

(1998)

Click Here to See Scene from Honolulu Lu (1941) – Under Construction

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The Latin LoverThe Latin Lover

• Established by Valentino

• Primal Sexuality

• Sensuous but Dangerous

• Romantic Promise that Could Get Out of Control

Rudolph Valintino in The Sheik

(1921)

Antonio Bandaras in

The Mask of Zorro (2005)

Click Here to See Scene from The Sheik (1921)

Read More About the Latin Lover on Hispanic Online.com

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The Dark LadyThe Dark Lady

• Counterpart to Latin Lover

• Virginal, Inscrutable, Aristocratic

• Arouse White Man’s Primal Desire More than White Woman

• Harlot Deep Down Inside

Dolores Del Río in In Caliente (1935)

María Conchita Alonso

in Colors (1988)

Click Here to See Scene from Flying Down to Rio (1933)

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The Big PointThe Big Point

• Part of Hollywood Moviemaking Paradigm• Fundamental to Storytelling Convention• Common, Repeated, Naturalized

– Shift and Change at Denotative Level– Connotative Level Remains Consistent

• Date Back to Early Cinema– The Greaser’s Gauntlet (1908)– Broncho Billy and the Greaser (1914)

Read Short Essay on Distorted Images from Digital History

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Resistance is PossibleResistance is Possible

Lecture 5: Part 3

Shot from Flying Down to Rio (1933)

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Critical CaveatCritical Caveat

Keep in mind that film texts are complicated, as are most texts found in popular culture. They contain

contradictions. They are rarely monolithic. “Hollywood cinema,” as Ramírez Berg notes, “is not simple, static,

or ideologically one-sided as that.”

Jennifer Lopez in Anaconda (1997)

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Ideological ConflictIdeological Conflict

• Dominant Films Contain Elements of Contradiction and Conflict

• Dominant Films Often Contain Progressive Elements

• Latino/a Actors Embed Irony and Subversion in their Performances

Suggested Supplemental Reading:

The Bronze Screen by Rosa Linda Fregoso

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Five Cinematic Categories Featuring Five Cinematic Categories Featuring Counter-StereotypesCounter-Stereotypes

• Partly Stereotypical / Partly Progressive

• Depart from Hollywood Paradigm

• Ideologically Oppositional

• Feature Latino/a Actors Subverting Types

• Made by Latino/a Directors to Counter Hollywood Paradigm

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Conflicts in Conflicts in Flying Down to RioFlying Down to Rio (1933) (1933)

• Stereotypes (Buffoon, Dark Lady)

• Supports Whiteness as Supreme

• Yet Includes Stereotypical Reversal

– Scene on the Beach

– Ending w/ Bicultural Romance

– Julio’s Noble Sacrifice

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Contemporary Example: Contemporary Example: AnacondaAnaconda (1997) (1997)

Jennifer Lopez’s heroism undermined the Hollywood paradigm: “the ritual commemoration of WASP male

heroism is hostile territory (and, ideologically and symbolically, of U.S. imperialism in the Third World).”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Click Here to See Scene from Anaconda (1997)

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Latino/a Playing Latinos/asLatino/a Playing Latinos/as

• Avoid Problem of Brown Face– Remember Charlton Heston as Vargas

• Facilitates Greater Verisimilitude

• More Accurate Characterization

Click Here to See Scene from Touch of Evil (1958)

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Problem with that ArgumentProblem with that Argument

• Latinos/as are Heterogeneous– Can Puerto Ricans Play Chicanos?

• Authenticity is Reductive

• Latinos/as Engage in Stereotyping

Jennifer Lopez in Maid in Manhattan (2002)

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Progressive HollywoodProgressive Hollywood

• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

• Salvador (1986)

“Although these films do follow the ‘WASP adventurer in the Third World’ formula, they nevertheless make

some pointed critiques of U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Latin American nations.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

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End of Lecture 5End of Lecture 5

Next Lecture:

To assimilate or not to assimilate?